(Radio Iowa) – Renovation is underway for another of the historic buildings at the Iowa State Fair. State Fair C-E-O Jeremy Parsons says the renovation of the swine barn will cost nearly 20 million dollars. “When completed, it will be the largest renovation project in fair history. And it’s a three-year overhaul of a building that was first constructed in 1907 and last had major improvements done to it in 1942,” Parsons says. He says there’s a lot of work to do.
“It will involve really removing nearly three-fourths of the roof as well as nearly three-fourths of the interior floor to make major improvements to the storm water retention system and drainage system,” he says. Parsons says the building has been notorious for allowing water to get in. “Anybody who spent some time in the swine barn at the Iowa State Fair knows that it leaks and ends up kind of being the drain for the fairgrounds and so lots of mitigation efforts involved there, along with just a complete overhaul of the entire building,” Parsons says.
He says they will do a lot of work while not taking away the historic nature of the building. “Obviously with the whole property being on the National Register of Historic Places, any renovations we do are done very carefully and thoughtfully,” he says. “So the swine barn will still maintain that beautiful brick exterior. But really what will be involved in that is just a modern inside in terms of painting and lighting.” He says upgrades to make the restrooms in the building more accessible will be completed by the time this year’s fair opens.
Parsons says this renovation puts them closer to completing the renovation of all of the animal barns they announced in 2022. “We have completed a two-year, six-million-dollar renovation on the sheep barn. That was done in the fall of 2024. And then when you come to the fair this year, you will see the completion of the two-year, 13 million-dollar renovation of the horse barn,” Parsons says. “So now we’re moving into the swine barn, and then the final barn to be done will be the cattle barn.”
Parsons says the main work on renovating the swine barn will get underway after this year’s fair ends. The 2026 Iowa State Fair opens on August 13th and will run through August 23rd.
